Traditionally inventors kept their notes in a bound notebook with sequentially numbered pages to provide proof of their inventive progress. The pages were signed and dated by witnesses, with all blank areas filled in to prevent any challenge that the material on a page was actually recorded at a date later than that recorded on the page. Persons developing computer code could record their ideas in their patent notebook and then type the code into the computer. Or they could get a printout of their code and paste it into their notebook.
When it came time to apply for a patent, the inventor would type up a disclosure to send to the patent attorney and forward the paper or electronic copy to the attorney. The formal application prepared by the attorney would be returned to the inventor for approval and then forwarded to the Patent Office.
The advancing computer technology suggested that the traditional patent notebook could be emulated in electronic form with advantages over the prior art. Carrying the traditional notebook around to find a Witness to sign a page, waiting for the Witness to read and sign the material, typing up material for the patent disclosure that had been entered into the notebook, all took time that could be saved by using a modern network-based electronic database tool.
Key features of the electronic notebook would be: 1) Time stamping of the entered data, 2) Confidence that the data was unaltered after the date of the time stamp, 3) Confidence that no data was removed after being entered and time stamped, 4) Ability to accept Witness signatures for entered material with an irrefutable time stamp indicating the time of witnessing, 5) Reliable storage to prevent loss of this valuable asset, 6) Identity of author and Witnesses assured via password security.
Additionally, it was desired to: 1) Make collaborative development possible over a computer network with the same security of a personal notebook that could be kept in a safe, 2) Provide supervisory capability, 3) Provide selective witnessing over the network, 4) Make it part of a company-wide filing system to provide a searchable archive of in-process and completed applications.
The anticipated advantages were: 1) Ready collaboration over large distances as international networks could provide a virtual office, 2) Single entry of information that serves for the roles of original documentation, development and disclosure, 3) Rapid information dissemination, modification, and approval; not limited by the physical constraints of the traditional notebook, 4) Use of electronic tools such as spelling and grammar checkers, drawing programs, etc., 5) Reducing proofreading time via the use of word processor revision markers, 6) Electronic exchange with the attorneys of all documents, 7) Electronic search to replace manual search for things we""ve done and want to look up.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art the current invention provides an electronic networked notebook database with stringent security features to protect the secrecy of a developer""s material; safeguards to prevent modification of data once it is stored in the database; time stamping of the material at the time that it is stored into the database; collaborative capability in that Witnesses can be assigned to see and provide legal witness to data within the database; utilization of a standard reliable networking tool in a production environment with regular backing up of data to prevent loss; identity of authors and Witnesses provided by passwords; four security levels to provide Administrator, Leader, Worker, and Witness levels of access to the database. A separate database is deployed for each development group or project that must have separate access privileges.
A variation of the notebook database, set up with divisions for Disclosures, Applications, Patents, and Abandoned invention data, provides a company-wide archive of all data that pursues a patent. This patent database provides electronic search and retrieval of data by various means, e.g. inventor""s name; disclosure, application, or patent number; title; keywords; content; date. This database is read-only accessible by users, since they are only retrieving information. No Witnesses are required for the documents, nor are the Worker or Leader categories required as in the notebook database. The Administrator is the sole person that is given the rights to modify the patent database, thus simplifying its control.
As a further guarantee of the integrity of the data within the notebook database, certain documents of exceptional value would be certified via an electronic Public Notary to provide independent certification of the date and non-modification of the document in the database.
Images can be pasted into the notebook database document as it is prepared, so that further clarity can be incorporated with the text. The text and images can readily be copied into other electronic documents for easier production of a disclosure document to send to an attorney to prepare a patent application. All word processing features of the networked database have been retained to provide the greatest facility to the author with minimal training.
The notebook database is designed to prevent any modification of a document once it is saved. The material in the saved document can not be altered or deleted. Standard backup procedures of the production software provide protection of the stored data against loss, and through archived copies provide an audit trail to further lend credence to the claim that the data is unaltered.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to create a document storage system that allows documents to be created and protected against any further modification except for the addition of a Witness statement, time stamps and digital signatures.
It is another object of the invention to only allow a modification to a document by adding a Witness statement, time stamps and digital signatures.
It is another object of the invention to designate people into different access levels.
It is another object of the invention to allow access to the documents to be dependent on specified access levels.
Another aspect of the invention is to restrict the creation of a document to designated individuals.
Yet another object of the invention is to allow limited access to change designations of people.
Still another object of the invention is to allow read-only access to designated individuals.
Another object of the invention is to allow different displays of accessible documents.
Yet another object of the invention is to allow the disclosure information to be entered into another database leading to patent prosecution.
It is another object of the invention to allow different levels of access for the patent documents.
It is still another object of the invention to allow read-only access to patent documents.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.